Tag: pitch

Make Your Voice Sound Like a Cowboy (Girls Also)

By Anupum Pant

Everyone who watches The Big Bang Theory on TV must have had a hearty laugh when Sheldon’s voice went funny in the 9th episode of season 3 (video).
In the video, when Sheldon starts talking on an NPR show about magnetic monopoles , Kripke uses a Helium tank to fill Sheldon’s room with Helium. As a result, his [Sheldon’s] voice shifts pitch and starts sounding really funny.

In this article we’ll see, what is it in Helium that makes our voices go funny. And we’ll also see another interesting gas that makes your voice sound like a cowboy. But first, some things about Helium:

Helium Warning

1. Do not use Helium to play. It is kind of a non-renewable resource. At the same time, it is used in laboratories for physics experiments. When you play with it and release it into the atmosphere, Helium is lost forever. I wrote an article on this couple of days back. [Understanding the impending Helium crisis]

2. Although Helium is a non-toxic gas and no it doesn’t kill brain cells, it can still kill you. Pranks like the one Kripke uses, which could potentially fill up the whole room with Helium could have lethal consequences. Too much Helium and you’ll not be breathing [enough] Oxygen. Even if you don’t care about the first point, you should think about inhaling more than 3 Helium filled balloons (or any other gas) during parties – it could kill you by asphyxiation (specifically, Hypoxia).

Talking about death, these speakers can also kill you – Plasma Speakers.

Why does Helium make voices go Daffy duck?

Helium is the second lightest element (gas) after Hydrogen. It is six times lighter than air. And if you’ve read this article on how sound works, you probably know that sound travels with different speeds through different mediums.
The speed of sound is about 3 times faster in helium, than in air. When you take in Helium, it increases the speed of sound that comes out of your mouth. It does nothing to your vocal chords. Faster sound and same wavelength results in a higher frequency sound.

Contrary to what is popularly believed, Helium doesn’t technically alters the pitch of your voice. [Read more]

Sulphur Hexafluoride

Helium voices are quite popular. On the other hand, sulphur Hexafluoride voices aren’t very commonly known.
Completely opposite to Helium, this is 6 times heavier than air. So, inhaling it makes your voice go really deep. The mechanism is just opposite to that of Helium. It makes sound move slower. Again, technically, it doesn’t change the pitch of your voice. Watch the video below:

Where can you find this gas?

Sulfur hexafluoride is used for eye surgery and ultrasound in hospitals. Also, it is widely used in the industry for various things. So, you could go to someone, who supplies gasses like these (Oxygen, Argon etc.) to hospitals and industries. Then you could request them to let you collect it in a small balloon (they won’t let you).
So, you could simply study science, work in laboratories and have such fun activities everyday (in moderation).

Side Note: Inhaling another non-toxic noble gas, Xenon, also does something similar. It is heavier than air so it makes your voice deep. At the same time, xenon will make your pockets extremely light.

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Longest Continuously Running Experiment – 83 Years and Counting

By Anupum Pant

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An experiment so slow that a professor overseeing it, died without having seen the results for half a century! The Pitch Drop experiment, started by Professor Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland in the year 1930, is the probably slowest science experiment and also holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest continuously running experiment ever.

What is the experiment?

It is an experiment designed to measure the flow of a solid looking piece (image) which is actually an extremely viscous liquid (actually a Viscoelastic Polymer) with a viscosity of approximately 230 billion times that of water. The name used for this class of extremely viscous liquids is, Pitch – Bitumen, Asphalt, Resin and Rosin are a few examples (not Glass). These things are so viscous that you can strike them with a hammer and see them shatter into sharp flakes (like glass), but it flows. The experiment is explained in detail, in the first few minutes of this radio show attached below. (the second half is pretty interesting too, but that is for some other day)

Other unbelievable materials previously covered in this series – Aerogels and Superhydrophobic surfaces.

Side note: The overseer of this experiment, Prof. John Mainstone actually lived through the drops of pitch falling three times, but unfortunately missed watching it happen every time (for 3 times in 50 years). In all, 8 drops have fallen since 1930.

  1. 1979 – He missed it because he wasn’t in the laboratory for the weekend.
  2. 1988 – Missed it because he went out for a tea break.
  3. 2000 – A camera was installed as a precautionary measure, the equipment malfunctioned; missed again!

He recently died waiting to see it in action. Since then, three web cameras have been installed as a fool proof measure to record the extremely rare event. You can watch it happening online here, although you might have to wait for several years to see it happening. (To confirm the live stream, look at that clock in in it and confirm with time here). There is also a time-lapse from 28th April 2012 – 10th April 2013 compressed into a 10-second-long video of the drop forming, embedded below.

A parallel experiment running at Trinity College, Dublin also wasn’t able to capture the rare scientific event on camera in spite of several drops falling since the commissioning of the experiment (1944). Finally, after 70 years of patient wait, on July 11, 2013 it was recorded on camera.